Taylor demands lifting of indictment in exchange for peace

President Charles Taylor demanded on Thursday that his indictment for war crimes by a Special Court in Sierra Leone be rescinded as a condition for peace in Liberia and the sub-region. "Peace in Liberia is dependent and hangs upon that particular situation [the indictment]. It has to be removed," Taylor told a hastily arranged news conference He warned that the trial of a Liberian president by the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone would "cause a long standing conflict" between the two countries. The court indicted Taylor last week on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his backing of rebels who committed widespread atrocities during Sierra Leone's 1991-2001 civil war. Taylor's government also faces UN sanctions that include an arms embargo and a ban on diamond and timber exports as a result of its support for insurgents in Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire as well as Sierra Leone. Taylor said the international community must remove the stigma of indictment from him, if efforts to bring peace to Liberia were to succeed. "It is racist, politically motivated and aimed at disgracing an African leader...Washington, London did it. They can help to fix it," the embattled president said. "It is not about Taylor, it is about the question if Africa can be free." "It sets an unhealthy precedent. Tomorrow it could be Museveni, Kagame, Mugabe, Gbagbo," he added, refering to the presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Cote d'Ivoire. Taylor said that he was willing to stand down in January 2004 and hand power over to a vice president on condition that incentives and security were given to his fighters and cabinet members. "It requires just a stroke of a pen," he said However, he did not say who would take over the vacant post of vice-president. Taylor sacked and arrested his previous vice-president, Moses Zeh Blah, last week accusing him of plotting to launch a coup d'etat. "He will soon explain to Liberians what happened," Taylor said at the time. Taylor continued to resist demands by the two rebel movements which now occupy more than half of Liberia that he step down immediately. He stressed that he would only quit if he and his top officials were given guarantees. "We want a negotiated ceasefire. The peace process is not just silencing the guns. For me it must be a total comprehensive package where there will be no harassment against me and my cabinet," he said. "I am prepared to be a whipping post, whatever it takes to bring peace to my people and stop the atrocities and genocide by powerful nations. My people must live. They are dying too much. I will sacrifice," Taylor said. "But I want a transition from war to peace that is smooth, sensible and smart." Sierra Leone's Special Court published its indictment against Taylor on June 4 and sent a warrant for his arrest to Ghana where he was attending the formal opening of peace talks with Liberian rebels. But the Ghanaian government ignored the request to detain him and allowed him to leave for Monrovia unhindered. The indictment and a rebel push into the outskirts of Monrovia however stalled the peace talks in their tracks, but they resumed on Thursday after all sides agreed in principle to a ceasefire and rebel forces withdrew from the capital. The talks in Akosomobo, a town 100 km north of the Ghanaian capital Accra, resumed on Thursday with a closed session chaired by former Nigerian leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar and attended by the Ghanaian Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo. Diplomatic sources said the delegates were discussing the more sensitive aspects of a ceasefire proposal laid before them. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who has been helping to bring all sides to the negotiating table, told IRIN that everything required for a successful take-off of the peace-talks was in place. Initially only one rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), turned up to discuss peace in Ghana. Its forces launched the simultaneous attack on Monrovia. A second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), which controls the southeast of the country, only turned up this week. Taylor's Defense Minister Daniel Chea flew to Ghana on Wednesday to lead the government delegation at the talks. Human rights groups welcomed the Special Court's indictment of Taylor last week and the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Betrand Ramcharan, said it was highly significant. David Crane, the court prosecutor, said Taylor had fled Ghana as "an international fugitive." He added: "The fight to bring this indicted war criminal to justice has begun. It will not end until the people of Sierra Leone and West Africa see him in a courtroom."